Q: If I'm not mistaken that was the night you went on Twitter and said something about not liking ground balls. It sort of seemed like a lot of people were like, 'Wait, what?'

A: "Yeah. It was controversial. I knew that when I posted it. It was part of the reason I posted it. I like to post things that make people think. The initial reaction to 'I hate ground balls' is, 'Oh my God, the sky is falling! How could anyone...' But when you actually look at it and think about the statistics behind it, it makes a lot of sense. Hitters are trained to hit the ball hard on the ground. Fly balls are bad. You don't want to hit the ball in the air. Hit the ball on the ground. Pitchers are taught to get them to hit the ball on the ground. Something's got to give. Hitters and pitchers can't both want the same thing. And ground balls have a much higher chance of producing a base runner. You've got to field the ball, throw the ball and field the ball again. That's three things you have to do. A fly ball you just have to catch it. A strikeout you don't have to do anything. Ground balls statistically go for hits a lot more than fly balls.

"Sure, fly balls produce more power numbers and stuff like that. But everyone gets so scared of the home run and the double, but if you actually have a plan on how to disrupt hitters' timing and you're not just guessing, 'Oh, I think this pitch here' 'I think that pitch there.' With Effective Velocity and understanding the physics behind a swing and hitters' timing and stuff like that -- I'm not scared of giving up fly balls. If I do a good job of disrupting a hitter's timing, they're not going to be able to hit it out of the park. So, to me, strikeouts and fly balls are key. The more of those I can get the better off I'm going to do. The amount of fly balls that I get aren't going to produce the amount of hits that some other pitchers' fly balls may produce. At least that's the theory. And, so far, it's proven out. I don't know how it's going to play at the big league level.

"It's just stuff like that that challenges the conventional wisdom. 'Do it because everybody else does it.' I'm not exactly in that mold. People don't know how to take it sometimes. It's not just frustration. 'Oh, I gave up five hits on ground balls today so now I hate ground balls.' I feel like I'm doing a better job of sequencing pitches and stuff like that if I get the ball hit in the air than if I get it hit on the ground."

You said you knew it would be controversial when you threw it out there...

"It's not so much a reaction. It's not that I'm trying to provoke people or poke people to get a reaction. I know that when I said something like that it would be somewhat controversial and people wouldn't really at first understand it. And so then people would ask me question and after I explain the ideology behind it, it just makes people think. I enjoy making people think about whether there's a better way to do things."

Im not disagreeing with him. My concern is he is UP and OUT of the strike zone. Throw the ball wherever you want too but throw strikes or throw pitchers strikes. If he cant throw it for strikes he is going to keep going only 5 innings and walking 6 or 7 guys.

Dnthateonthepronk wrote:Im not disagreeing with him. My concern is he is UP and OUT of the strike zone. Throw the ball wherever you want too but throw strikes or throw pitchers strikes. If he cant throw it for strikes he is going to keep going only 5 innings and walking 6 or 7 guys.

Hardest pitch for a hitter to lay off is the high fastball. He needs to spot it better in terms of hitting the corners, yes. Too many of them miss by a ton or get too much plate. But, I have no problem with his pitching philosophy.

He'll have to adjust to Major League hitters in that he'll need to pitch backwards (start with offspeed, then go to fastball) more often to keep them honest, but I have no doubt that he's studying every plate appearance and trying to improve from it.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

skatingtripods wrote:Hardest pitch for a hitter to lay off is the high fastball. He needs to spot it better in terms of hitting the corners, yes. Too many of them miss by a ton or get too much plate. But, I have no problem with his pitching philosophy.

I dont either, if thats how he works and he can make it successful then great. There are a million ways to do things successfully. He wants to throw high strikes great....but throw strikes. He has to locate better in and around the top of the zone and like you said pitch backwards.

You can see how good Bauer's raw stuff is. Especially when you consider that he's starting the majority of the at bats 1-0 or 2-0, yet not getting hit hard. Again, a little bit of a watered down lineup, but you can see the kid's talent. Needs some polishing, but from a stuff perspective, it's as good as any we've seen here in a long time. Late rise on the fastball. Good slow curve. Pretty good assortment of changeups.

Offense needs to figure out this soft tosser.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

I get Francona's hesitation to go to the pen with a night game and day game in Philly before the off day, but asking Bauer for seven was a little too much after he labored through the first three innings.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

The offense is to blame for this game, not Hagadone or Francona. Getting shut out by this rag-tag outfit...good grief, the Indians look like the Washington Generals out there. Lucky to get one today, maybe the bats can de-funkify on the way to Filthadelphia.